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Democratic National convention 
Fri Sep 12, 2008 at 22:08:28 PM EDT
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CROSS-POSTED FROM MICHIGAN YOUTH POLITICAL ALLIANCE
Obama's message of hope and change has reached out to millions of young voters, and I do not understand how some people can not understand why. Republicans think it might have to do with the age of the candidate, so they bring in Palin. Now, she may be "young," but she certainly does not bring nearly the same understanding to issues that concern youth voters the most as Obama does.
With a young population experiencing piled-up college debt and the pressure of finding new jobs, they refuse to believe that a continuation of the current administration could be the solution, especially since John McCain barely shares the compassion Obama does for education and job growth. Our youth have also become disillusioned by the failed policies of the Iraq War and have felt the stress of escalating costs of health care within their families. Who deals with these issues with an eye out for how we feel? I don't see McCain caring much about what we think. The latest Gallup polls from September 7 reveal our thoughts exactly--60% favor Obama while only 32% favor McCain.
But putting all political affiliation aside, will youth participation shock us this election season?
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Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 17:23:23 PM EDT
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A little something I wrote last night. Cheers, M
Dear Rachel and Charlie,
As I write this, you're both upstairs, sound asleep in your cribs. Your
mother
has gone off to bed too. Just me here, awake on a school night with
some things on my mind.
I'm thinking about this country we live in. What an imperfect
place it is! For instance, we sometimes start wars we
shouldn't, many of
our leaders are corrupt we now have this vast chasm between a few rich
people and everybody
else. Here in Michigan, where we live, many of our cities are
literally
falling to pieces; our schools underfunded. More of our people are
looking for work here than in
any other part of the country. The list goes on.
But beyond its flaws, this land has a whole lot going
for it too. For one thing, we have the freedom to say what we want, to
go where
we want - and to worship if or however we want. Too often we forget
that's not the case for so much of the world.
Our people have come here from literally every corner of the
planet, bringing with them their different cultures and traditions. And
even if we don't always live up to it, the idea of equal
opportunity is embedded at the core of our soul.
Throughout our history, we've had people like your grandfather and
great-grandfathers - people who have stepped forward to put their
lives on the line not only keep us safe, but to help bring the
same sorts of freedoms
we enjoy here to people in other parts of the world.
And when things get off track, we have continually
risen to the occasion. It's never nearly as fast as we would hope
- and usually involves decades or more of pain and struggle.
Eventually, though,
we make it right. We are a nation constantly trying to perfect
itself.
That's the America I know and love; the America you and I were blessed
to be born into.
Sadly, these past eight years I've often found myself
wondering if that America had died; if our best days were finally
behind us. I don't think
I could ever fully describe the sense of hopelessness, despair
and bitterness that's inhabited this country under George Bush. I only pray you never have to endure anything
like it.
But tonight,
something is different.
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Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 10:55:50 AM EDT
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Jack has spent many segments this week talking about and with the movers and shakers who are attending this week's Democratic National Convention in Denver. Folks like Democratic Party Chairman Mark, Brewer, former Michigan Governor James Blanchard, Local UAW President Robin Golden and 18-year old party delegate Jason Morgan. Hear those clips and more from the world of politics, news and sports in our Audio Vault.
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Sat Aug 23, 2008 at 18:59:56 PM EDT
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Well, after months of anticipation I arrived in Denver this afternoon for the Democratic National Convention. I'm going to do my best to blog short updates about what is going on here at the Convention over the next several days. I'll confess that I'm already pretty tired and am going to need to do some recharging tonight. As many of you may know, this past week was Welcome Week at Michigan State University. This is a busy and important time for the East Lansing community. In addition to One Book One Community and other welcome events, I decided to do a ride-along with the East Lansing Police Department on Friday night. It was a powerful learning experience that I'll need to write about some other time. Suffice to say that I was impressed with the professionalism of the men and women I spent the shift with. The problem is that I was so impressed, rather than end my ride along at midnight as I had planned, I stayed until 6:00 a.m. Needless the say that left me packing for Denver frantically at six, in order to get out the door by 8:30 a.m. and to Detroit to catch my flight by noon. It's been a long journey, but I'm thrilled to be here now. Stayed tuned for future Convention updates! Nathan Triplett
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Thu Jun 12, 2008 at 14:35:27 PM EDT
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By Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper
Now that one of the most remarkable primaries in our nation's history has concluded, attention is turning to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. In less than three months, the Mile High City and the Rocky Mountain West will host this historic event for the first time since 1908.
The Convention also coincides with Denver's 150th birthday - a
century-and-a-half of progress and innovation since its birth at the height of the Colorado gold rush. A hub of opportunity for people seeking new frontiers, people come to Colorado seeking much more than gold these days. The spirit of visionary zeal and limitless possibility is as strong as ever in the New West. So it's fitting that as the Democratic Party marches toward its own new frontier, it will do so through Denver.
A message to all of you in Michigan: you don't have to be in Denver - or on the Convention floor - to get in on the action though. The Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee has organized two interactive ways for people anywhere in America to get involved. We're convening a national conversation about democracy and community and invite everyone to participate.
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Thu May 22, 2008 at 17:47:53 PM EDT
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The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee May 31st agenda was published yesterday (May 21st), and we are not on it:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/05/21/democrats-set-rules-for-meeting-on-florida-michigan-delegations/?mod=WSJBlog
(Not yet posted at http://www.democrats.org/press.php -- although May 20th and 22nd appear, there are none for May 21st.)
The Florida Challenger is being heard, but for Michigan, they just have the state party speak twice!
I know of two activist blogger Challenges: one some months ago from a Grand Rapids attorney that posts at Michigan Liberal (Earl Erland). The other was developed in an open and transparent process at Michigan Liberal, with participation from "Democracy for America" and "Michiganders for Obama" activists. The challengers are from several congressional districts across the state.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/files/28/files//2008/05/michiganchallengepetition.pdf
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/files/28/files//2008/05/michiganchallengedetail_exhibits.pdf
The Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) was required to file an Answer within 10 days. They did not. Earl Erland says they never responded to his, either! In any court of law in the land, a party that fails to file an Answer has defaulted, and is not usually entitled to oral argument on appeal.
The national Democratic Party charter requires that the Party:
Establish standards and rules of procedure to afford all members of the Democratic Party full, timely and equal opportunities to participate in decisions concerning the selection of candidates, ... and further, to promote fair campaign practices and the fair adjudication of disputes. (Charter, Article I, Section 4)
This is not a "fair adjudication of disputes." The MDP leaders that didn't follow the rules (and are personally responsible for the problems) are heard, while voters that follow the rules are ignored.
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Thu May 08, 2008 at 15:36:04 PM EDT
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( - promoted by Eric B.)
Camp Hillary is rejecting the new plan floated today by Michigan Dems that would seat the delegation by awarding 69 delegates to Hillary and 59 to Obama.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talk...
That was one of the Challenge result options in our proposal, too, although with no superdelegates.
But without the agreement, we're going for full Rules requirements, which would be based on the actual April 19th delegate attendance. Since Uncommitted showed up 2:1 (as much as 6:1 in some places), the Clinton delegates must be decreased -- not increased.
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Thu May 08, 2008 at 15:33:18 PM EDT
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In a letter addressed to Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton asks the Illinois Senator to join her in working towards a "fair and quick resolution" to the Michigan and Florida questions. Sen. Clinton writes that simply seating the delegaitons is enough enough, and that "[t]he people of these great states, like the people who have voted and are to vote in other states, must have a voice in selecting our party's nominee." One of the foremost principles of our party is that citizens be allowed to vote and that those votes be counted. That principle is not currently being applied to the nearly 2.5 million people who voted in primaries in Florida and Michigan. Whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee will be hamstrung in the general election if a fair and quick resolution is not reached that ensures that the voices of these voters are heard. Our commitment now to this goal could be the difference between winning and losing in November.
The Obama campaign has not immediately responded to Sen. Clinton's letter. Full text of the letter below the fold.
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Thu May 08, 2008 at 13:30:06 PM EDT
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(From the diaries - promoted by lpackard)
At its meeting on Wednesday night, May 8, the Executive Committee (of the MDP) made these decisions:
1. To file an appeal with the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee proposing that all 157 automatic and pledged Michigan delegates be seated with a full vote and that the 128 pledged delegates be allocated 69 for Clinton and 59 for Obama. Joel Ferguson will join the appeal and withdraw his own appeal.
2. To reschedule the May 17 State Central meeting to June 14 to allow time for the delegate dispute to be resolved.
Thank you for your continued patience and support.
Mark Brewer
My comments - At least the Ferguson idea is dead. Here is what I wrote in a comment to a diary on dkos this morning:
I am an elected Michigan delegate (6th CD, male Uncommitted), and I have to say that Michigan Democrats are still divided about this issue. Many (like myself and Martha) fought the MDP over this. I told Mark Brewer to his face last October that this would be a disaster. I continued to oppose it, and to support a re-do, until last month, when it became clear that would not happen under any circumstances.
However, there are many other Michigan voters who think the results are fine, and mainly blame Obama et al. for pulling out. This is simply a reality, and until we have a resolution, it will continue to sap our energy. I've been out canvassing, doing voter ID in my neighborhood, and I hear about this issue again and again, when I'm trying to change the subject to the issues for the fall campaign.
So, Martha, I AM hearing how Michigan voters feel. And it's all mixed up, and we need to put this behind us. If that takes a compromise that is less than ideal from any point of view, so be it.
Below, I list the members of the RBC, along with what I have been able to find out about whether they support [O]bama or [C]linton. This may give us some idea of how the vote might go down at their meeting on May 31:
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Wed May 07, 2008 at 09:07:18 AM EDT
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This is the regular monthly Democracy for America (DFA) Washtenaw meetup. Wednesday evening, May 7, 7:00 pm Conor O'Neill's, 318 South Main in Ann Arbor. We're usually in the back, on the right-hand side (NW corner). We'll have a notary to validate signatures on the DNC Challenge, and for folks to run for Precinct Delegate. If the Clintonites are really going for the "nuclear option", this may be more important than ever....
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Sun May 04, 2008 at 12:47:58 PM EDT
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We're having a DNC challenge notarized signing at Arbor Brewing, for Uncommitted folks, today (Sunday) 3-4:30.
The Clintonite co-chair Joel Ferguson has filed something (or at least a press release) with the DNC to have themselves and their superdelegates seated. This is the counter-petition some folks at Michigan Liberal (and the local Democracy for America) worked on this past week.
When the state has no binding primary, it turns out that there are specific Rules that require the count of actual convention attendees to be used to allocate delegates. Since there were twice as many Uncommitted in many places across the state, we should have twice the delegates!
Worse, the number of delegates and alternates given Clinton greatly exceeds the 55% on the non-binding primary.
Of course, we've already chosen some delegates, so the resolution is probably a redistribution of at-large and PLEO delegates.
Also, it challenges the superdelegates. And, asks for sanctions against the Clinton campaign for "participating" on the ballot, and "campaigning" in the state.
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Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 18:24:28 PM EDT
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 I was in East Los Angeles on Super Tuesday when the non-partisan election reform organization Why Tuesday? interviewed Dolores Huerta, one of my personal heroes. Huerta, a human rights activist, community organizer, and co-founder (with Cesar E. Chavez) of the United Farm Workers, talked about the need for serious voter reform to ensure that every voice is heard in our democracy. Dolores Huerta has spent her life fighting the good fight, empowering people of color and other marginalized groups to organize and push for change. It was in that spirit that today hundreds of Latinos--organized by the United Latin American Citizens—protested outside of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, DC. Latinos came from Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Jacksonville, and beyond to express their outrage at their disenfranchisement “This is a civil liberties issue – not a campaign or candidate issue,” said Jose Fernandez, president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida, speaking to the crowd… Another speaker was Anita de Palma, 66, of Clearwater, Fla. She is a past Florida director of the League of United Latin American Citizens… “This is our heritage!” said de Palma, referring to the right to vote and have that vote count. “Our forefathers fought for it, our father’s fought for it, and I’ll be damned if we are going to let it get away from us now!” And she’s right. Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP, has said that this selective disenfranchisement could remind voters of America’s “sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries." And it does. The overriding consensus on MichiganLiberal is to tell the 2 million voters who voted in Michigan and Florida "tough luck," and to blame the MI and FL party leadership. "Tough luck" is what African-Americans were told when they failed literacy tests. "Tough luck" is what African-Americans were told when they weren't able to pass the "grandfather tests" in the days before the Voting Rights Act. "Tough luck" is what my grandparents were told when they tried to buy a house, only to discover there was a "whites only" clause in the deed. "Tough luck" is what my mother and her black neighbors were told when they wanted to swim in the Los Angeles city pool on "whites only" days. And "tough luck" is what people of color hear time and time again when whites overlook us for the job, promition, or recognition we've earned.
So excuse me if I think we've had enough of "tough luck." A few weeks back, I posted about a rally a grasroots "activist" organized in Lansing to raise awareness about the disenfranchisement of Michigan's voters. I also posted about some Michigan and Florida union workers who protested at DNC headquarters. And although proud of both efforts, the question that lingers in the back of my mind (and in the minds of many of the other people of color I talk to) is why are the rest of our brothers and sisters in the Michigan Democratic Party remaining silent when the votes of hundreds of thousands of are hanging in the balance? We ask ourselves, "Where is their outrage?"
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Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 10:42:19 AM EDT
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Continuing the draft 1 sections. See http://michiganliberal.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=12015 Sadly, Waiting for Godot (Godot doesn't show up). So, here's my take on the section that I've been awaiting for so long. I'm sure there might be better language. This is done in a Complaint style, rather than a Brief style, as a more extensive brief can be filed later.
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Sun Apr 27, 2008 at 13:11:29 PM EDT
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There have been many proposals in this group about how to reallocate the Michigan delegates. Signing a "petition" is not how the rules work, and will not likely make something happen.
Instead, I've been working for several weeks on an actual Challenge under the rules (with a bit of help from my friends). While Waiting for Godot, I'm posting the challenge sections here for discussion.
The clock for filing started on or about April 19th, so by the end of this week, we need NOTARIZED signatures.
Also, I need a complete list of the number of participants for each district. All I've seen are the estimates here and elsewhere. Where are the official lists?
This is the first of 4 parts. I've given up on figuring out how to get the M$Word HTML to work as a post here, so the formatting isn't as pretty.
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Thu Apr 24, 2008 at 14:00:06 PM EDT
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(Well, I give you ... the thing that wouldn't die. - promoted by Eric B.)
http://ap.google.com/article/A...
Under DNC member Joel Ferguson's proposal, Michigan would send its 28 unpledged superdelegates and 128 pledged delegates to Denver despite being stripped of delegates for holding its primary too early. Florida was similarly punished for its early primary.
Ferguson said it would be fair punishment to give each pledged delegate only half a vote for breaking DNC rules. He said superdelegates - of which he is one - should get a full vote.
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Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 23:53:08 PM EDT
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The national party requires that delegates are selected in phases, for as much diversity as possible. These are specified in the rules, located at:
http://www.democrats.org/a/convention_2008/delegate/
http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/DelegateSelectionRules.pdf
"The Call for the 2008 Convention shall state the base delegation for each delegation. Seventy-five percent (75%) of each state's base delegation shall be elected at the congressional district level or smaller. Twenty-five percent (25%) of each state's base delegation shall be elected at large."
[Rule 8.C for those of you reading along.]
"In those states with more than one congressional district, after the election of district-level delegates and prior to the selection of at-large delegates, each State Democratic Chair shall certify pledged party leader and elected official delegates equal to 15% of the state's base delegation selected pursuant to Rule 9."
[Rule 8.D]
1) District-level delegates, that we are selecting April 19th. This is for the worker bees, the base of the party.
Traditionally, it is considered nasty (not to mention evil) for a higher level delegate to run for district-level. For example, as a former Member of Congress, the Honorable Dave Bonior could easily win a district-level seat. He was the Edwards national campaign manager. But that would disenfranchise any up-and-coming local members. Likewise, it would be very poor behavior for a (self-selected) state-wide Obama organizer to disenfranchise a local worker. Like a Cheney recruiting potential VPs, but then selecting himself. Don't be a Dick. 2) At-large delegates. Generally better known regional, union, or organization leaders.
"Following the selection of district-level delegates, and prior to the selection of pledged party leader and elected official delegates...."
[Rule 9.B]
Many folks list themselves for both levels, so that district-level candidates that miss out have a chance to serve at-large. But that doesn't happen very often.
3) PLEO = "party leader and elected official"
"Following the selection of unpledged add-on delegates under 9.B., pledged party leader and elected official delegates ...."
[Rule 9.C]
As you can see from the lists, this a rarefied group.
4) superdelegates. [Rule 9.A]
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Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 18:37:21 PM EDT
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(Good stuff, too. - promoted by rich)
The complete list of eligible Uncommitted candidates, 3rd or 4th hand. Remember, uncommitted doesn't mean Obama. There are likely Clinton supporters in this list. Vet carefully.
Second try.
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